There is a kickstarter claiming to be inspired by Plancescape: Torment, but nothing on the page made me believe they were going to end up with anything worth playing.

Morrowind

Bethesda is still making Elder Scrolls games. Morrowind has more memory potential than most because the devs actually looked at the idea of making a mildly alien ecosystem. It's quite a shame that Cyrodil and Skyrim have familiar European ecosystems with a little splash of European fantasy aspects and daedra.

Wizardy 8

Not sure about this one, can't remember if I played it.

Other games that have had attempted followers but still outshine them:Alpha CentauriMaster of MagicMaster of Orion 2Heroes of Might and Magic... can't remember if it was 3 or 4All Command and Conquer games before that worthless mess that was C&C4 (the changes in the 3s made the gameplay awkwardly similar to the Blizzard *craft games, but they still felt more like Command and Conquer than Scrincraft/Bearcraft) [yes, I include Renegade in this list]...and I know I'll think of another 15 when I get home tonight. That doesn't mean all games were better a decade ago, just that there were enough good games to be worth rebuying off gog.com because I don't know where my discs are. The modern philosophy of "release now, finish next year" also doesn't help. I don't want to pay $60 for a beta release and then another $40 for the rest of the content (also released in public beta levels of quality).

At least you didn't try MOO3 - seems just the opposite happened with that one. I logged about 6 hours on it after launch, uninstalled it, and never played it again. Heard they patched it extensively, but the thing practically needed Extreme Makeover, Game Edition for me to ever like it. Incidentally, I still play MOO2 occasionally in DOSBox.

What I wouldn't mind is a game similar to Neverwinter Nights 1 or 2. (Not Neverwinter -- that is a MMO, but the old NWN games.) Granted that the OC for NWN1 was fairly weak, but HotU more than made up for that, not to mention the very well written stuff made by players.

These let one run their own persistant worlds, where if you wanted to design something cool, you could make a HAK pack for your custom stuff, then allow people to connect. There were some really creative worlds with very interesting plots,

What happened to all the interesting ideas they had 10 or 20 years ago?

There are still interesting ideas -- the Mass Effect and Witcher series, for instance. I do wish developers would stop looking to MMOs for inspiration for single-player RPGs. It's just insulting when a $60 SP-only RPG hits me with a "kill 10 of monster X" quest. But I also hate crafting, so maybe there's just something wrong with me.

A lot of people lament the dearth of innovation in gaming. When asked what they want? They ask for sequels to games they already played.

But that's ok. Because people aren't looking for new ideas in games, they want "good" games. New ideas that are poorly executed are still going to result in a bad game. Old ideas with great execution are going to result in a good game (assuming the idea hasn't been worn to death like WW2 shooters). People just want good games.

So here's a few in line with the games you've called out.1) Planescape torment - One might reference Neverwinter Nights games (specifically with the expansion stories) to get the isometric D&D style gameplay. But the gameplay in Planescape was not important at all, it was all about the protagonist's existential dilemma and top-quality writing, that's the element that people remember so fondly. With that in mind, The relatively recent game I'd recommend that you try is Walking Dead Season 1. If you don't watch the show, or read the comics, that's fine, because this game is both totally unconnected to, and is much better than the source material. Unless you're the kind of person that likes to jump on the bandwagon of hating things that are popular? This "game" has hardly any game mechanics to speak of because this is an RPG in the purest sense. You play a role, and the entire focus of this game is on making you really feel like you're IN the role. You make weighty decisions that result in significant consequences.

2) Morrowind - Play Skyrim. The mod community for Skyrim is just as lively as Morrowwind's.

3) Wizardry 8 - They just released the 10th Might and Magic game in January 2014, M&M X. It's still a party of 4 adventurers you customize and take through the world on a turn-by-turn basis. Don't know how good that game is, but Legend of Grimrock which is also using the same formula, is definitely a good game.

As for new ideas, look towards the indie space on Steam. There's still plenty. I don't play games as often as I used to, and I too have fond memories of games going back to Dos prompts and Nintendo cartridge-blowing days, but I still see great things happening in the games industry and I don't believe that all the highwater marks had already been reached in the past.

But going back on topic, I definitely play games a lot less than I used to. I won't have much free time until the kids are older. In the meantime, I find I experience most of the new things happening in gaming through "Let's Play" video channels on youtube or Twitch where I watch someone else play games while I'm doing dishes, folding laundry, etc.

I was going to suggest the same - I had my house long before I had others to occupy it (er, about a year before I started dating my wife-to-be, but 2 1/2 years [total] before we were engaged and she moved in), and I'd probably list these things chronologically, myself. No kid though, we're DINKs [investopedia.com].

AH yes, DINKs. Showing the two people can waste most of there lives working.

It seems so wasteful to me that one of you doesn't spend there time enjoying life as a whole.My wife and I decided early one the the person with the most lucrative career should work, and the other should enjoy life.

I see this time line. on the left as all the time you didn't exist, on the right, is all the time that you will no longer exist. In the center, if you zoom in real close, there is a tiny dot that is the time you exist.Wh

Kids are easy to replace compared to a house or a dog.Even if you don't have a woman to fuck you can just buy a kid in russia or afrika.Thailand has so many babies that they find them in the trash and in landfills.Also I think that if you married the right person they will love you more than the kids.

Also this is not sarcasm. I just don't give a fuck about kids. In fact I actively dislike most of them.Don't worry; I have no plans (or even prospects) of having kids.

Also I think that if you married the right person they will love you more than the kids.

Such women only flourish in societies that aren't working to turn both genders feral for the sake of ego-driven identity politics/ideology or profit motive. I wish you luck if you live in the west. You'll need it.

Well, I have a wife and kid now, and I would say I play games more than I did when I was single. It's just an easy way to relax for half an hour here or an hour there, when I can't really leave the house or I'm stuck at home on a Saturday evening. Plus, I brought an xbox 360 to my office so I play during lunch with my colleagues as well. But in total, I probably game for 10hr/wk.

I have a wife and 2 little girls. Sleeping in has become a distant memory so staying up to 2 playing games becomes self-destructive FAST!

I still get dragged into games every now and then but tend to find it is art imitating life as I seem to be drawn to games about managing multiple aspects and money. Last thing that sucked up hours of my life was X3. Gnomoria and Prison Architect have had a pretty good attempt as well.

The biggest thing is I used to play A LOT of counter strike. I really was

The time spent sitting at a desk in front of a computer in order to earn all of that expendable income...has made sitting at a desk playing PC games when I get home one of the last things I desire to do.

Sometimes I will get drawn into something and play for a little while...but I can't remember the last time I actually finished a game. I do the most playing now when friends want to get together and do it at the occasional LAN party. Of course then, we mostly play older games...L4D2 is probably the newes

Some of us were gaming more 30 years ago than we do now. (My lawn, get off it, and all that.) But seriously, there was more mindless violence back then than there is now. Everything has to be so thoughtful and moral these days.

Played the arcade version of pong at the Bayswater Hotel circa 1970. It was a new pub and the game was used to generate interest, as a kid you had to have a parent with you to play. The pub quickly got a bad reputation for violent brawls but I don't think that had anything to do with the game....

About 5 years ago I was a pretty heavy into gaming.. probably 60+hrs a week (with a full time job). I realized it was eating up too much of my time and money so I pulled the plug on the whole thing, sold it all, and never looked back. Best decision I ever made.

I gave it up about 2005. I had a start up at the time that was 70 - 80 hours a week. I sold it in 2010 and made out pretty well. After a few months of "going out" all the time I and seeing how much I was spending I actually got back into gaming. But I was never one to buy a lot of games. I just tended to play the ones I liked a lot. For instance I bought an Xbox 360 in 2010. Bought the Halo Reach edition. Between then and now the list of 360 titles I own: Halo Reach and Battlefield 3 Premium. In f

Then I spent $40 on a pledge for this Star Citizen, which I suspect I'll spend a lot of time playing over these next few years.

Just read up on Star Citizen and I've become interested as well. Have you ever played or heard about Escape Velocity Nova [ambrosiasw.com]? It sounds somewhat similar to Star Citizen, though EV Nova is single-player only.

I found EV Nova to be highly engrossing and fun; it's a free roaming space trader / space combat game with RPG elements. It's shareware, so you can download the full game and play about the first 50% of it for free, with the option to $30 for a license that unlocks the full game, with all the special

Yeah, I loaded up my old copy a few months ago and played through it a couple times. I was glad to see there are plug-ins to help the game run on widescreen displays and at higher resolutions than the default 1024x768. It looked great on my 1680x1050 screen.

I have a hard enough time staying away from LBreakout and MyBrute when I should be working. And occasionally bowling or pinball on my phone or tablet.

Used to be big into some of the MechWarrior series, but then got a real job, switched to Linux shortly thereafter, and decided not long after this that I'd prefer to invest most of my time and energy into pursuits having possible real-world benefits.

Actually, the game I play the most is this [trainchinese.com]. I hold the high score for HSK Level 1, BTW: 1,519,010. Guess it's ti

Yeah, and all those studies proving increased hand-eye coordination skills of video gamers were a waste of time too. That's why they've been doing research into having laproscopic surgeons play games on the regular to improve their skills.

... a lot of less to almost none. I just have no time, motivation/energy, annoyed, etc. to play them. Very rarely, I play them (did play The Witcher 2's free weekend for a few hours). I still do play turned based games in IRC with friends with rbot [ruby-rbot.org]'s games (Junkyard, Uno, etc.). At least, they can be played slowly (the longest game was over a week!).:)

going back to around that time-frame, I was still married to my ex-wife, who also enjoyed video games. We had a pretty regular ritual of battling each other in a RTS game like Age of Empires or Warcraft in the evening. Neither one of us were too big on watching television so that kind of took the place of it for us.

These days, I still play the occasional online first person shooter, just to unwind or kill some time. But it's not as big a deal anymore. I've actually received coupon codes to download new games and didn't even bother for months, because that's how little I'm enthused by them. If I get bored enough some Sunday afternoon, that's when I might look at one of those, and give it an hour or two of my time.

But truthfully, I get a lot more out of reading things on message forums or informative web sites than just gaming, these days. Maybe that's all part of "getting old"? Or maybe I just feel like most games I see are rehashes of stuff I've played before, so I just don't care?

Games theses days are too casual.All you need to "win" is either purchase unlocks, or, spend 8 hours watching cut-scenes and the game is completed.

I played Quake 3 Arena for 4 years, not because it was easy, but because it was a challenge to master. A pure game of skill and rewarded you with excellent gameplay, instead of childish achievements.The whole point of the game was to master it, play online and show everyone what your capable of. It was like chess in overdrive.Now you can just buy your way into unlocks instead of mastering the game. We've been conned and profits yet again cause people to make shit games:)

Nothing current will replace that experience and joy i had with Quake3, and the way games are going, nothing in my lifetime.

"All you need to "win" is either purchase unlocks"I am not aware of any games where that is true.

"spend 8 hours watching cut-scenes and the game is completed."or that.

"I played Quake 3 Arena for 4 years, not because it was easy, but because it was a challenge to master."the more you could pay for your internet connect, and the more you could pay for your computer, the more likely you where to win. Seriously,latency was a real issue with quake. More so then most games. so, pay to win.

10 years ago my son was two. All diapers and chasing kids around... no time for anything. When he was about six I showed up with a PS2 and a copy of lego star wars 'for the family'. Not to mention an undisclosed Star Wars Battlefront game for me (though he and I were playing two player on it before long. I told my wife 'they guys in the white are robots, so it's OK. He's not shooting people' ).

Now he's got an xbox and I play it when he's gone or in bed. I grab a used game for $10 every now and then and get obsessed with it for awhile. I find it's a good way to unwind without killing brain/liver cells.

Nice. I'm in the same fun situation. Having a kid got a lot more fun when they could play good games. The legos are great. We've done star wars, and indy jones, but I kind of want to get her to watch lord of the rings before we play that.

Also, ok, I know this isn't the best decision, but she's been wanting to play left-for-dead, and I can only say no so many times, so I say if her grades keep up, then ok. And similar to you, I'll tell her mom "they're zombies, so it's ok".

Yet most of us were causing death and destruction on human beings in games when we were 6. Unless you have a history of murder, all these "it's ok if they're zombies/robots/fantasy" posts are kind of silly and propagating a concept I wish would just die already.

" and I can only say no so many times"no, you are a dad, you can say "no" every time.

They aren't zombies. i.e. raised from the dead. They are sick humans. well, really they are just pixels; which is the important bit.

Oh, and if she like 'zombie' story, have her read 'The Dead' by Charlie Higson. The whole series is good.In fact I consider the Dead one of the best 'Zombie' book written. It was recommend to me by my 13 year old daughter.

In what must be as far back as 1997 or so, I once played through the entire Alpha Centauri game. It took me a full day and a full night. And then - it was over. I never gamed again. In my view, computers are there to be programmed, not for gaming. The only game I still play is chess. Ever since I turned 8 and my father esteemed it about time that I learned it, as it was - in his opinion - a skill that a grown-up man must have. It is the only thing I am grateful for to him.

I'm so addicted to video games that I make my own now. I play less video games than I did 10 years ago because 10 years ago, I paid rent playing Asheron's Call and selling stuff on ebay. But now I'm a full time game programmer/designer. My next game comes out in 2-4 months: www.ThroneAndCrown.com [throneandcrown.com]

I'm guessing this poll means video games, but I play board games and sports, you insensitive clod. I find it a little weird that "game" has been narrowed to mean specifically video games to the "gaming" subculture.

monthly fees vs. old fashioned whole game purchases, it works out about the same.Hardware costs have decreased, I don't want(cough) high end graphics now and so a PC is cheaper than 10years ago, and the screens are bigger.

I used to play a lot of FPS games (Counter Strike, Unreal, etc) I was single and living with other gamers.

Now I am married, and my video game has been slightly reduced. The time I used to spend playing games I now spend with the wife, running, and both training and teaching martial arts (kung fu and tai chi). I have been mostly playing GTA:V (over it thanks to the hackers who ruined it), BF4 (over it due to Dice / EA sucking), HearthStone (great, free game that is challenging but not too mentally taxing)

About 10 years ago I was coming down from computer gaming. Too many fast twitch kids out on the 'net and the vs AI was either crazy hard or non-existent.

8 years ago my wife was bugging me to do something about the 6 or 8 moving boxes full of paper games. So I started pulling out my old gear. Shadowrun 1st and 2nd, Paranoia, D&D and AD&Dr1/r2, Talisman 2nd Edition, Cosmic Encounters, and a bunch of misc gear.

I'd gotten out of person to person gaming in part because there just weren't any to be found.